


Care of Miss Jane Ross

by lea_hazel



Series: How We Won the War [1]
Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Community: purimgifts, Families of Choice, Gen, Growing Up, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-World War II, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-20
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 22:06:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3397964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_hazel/pseuds/lea_hazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miss Fisher takes Jane to see New York City. Jane reflects on the difference between this holiday and so many others they have taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care of Miss Jane Ross

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darthjamtart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthjamtart/gifts).



"Well, Jane," said Miss Fisher as they stepped onto the docks, "how do you like your first look at New York City?" 

She said it as though they were embarking on yet another of the "educational" world tours of her childhood, and Jane knew that, as far as Phryne was concerned, those not-quite-innocent European holidays could continue indefinitely. It would never flatter Phryne Fisher to be curmudgeonly, or otherwise show any concession at all to the years and their relentless advance. When she looked at Jane, though, she still saw a child. However polished her manner, she was still just a precocious schoolgirl. 

And when she got that hard, faraway look in her eyes, Miss Fisher could very well ignore it. That was one thing she would never allow them to share. Jane understood, or told herself she did, anyway. The Great War was not so long ago, and it got nearer and nearer with every passing year. Luckily, there were still things that one could do to keep one's wars at bay, such as visiting New York City to see the tallest building in the world. 

"It's lovely, Miss Fisher," said Jane, once she had shook herself from her reverie. 

"Exciting," said Phryne. "Let's go find an adventure, shall we?" 

She held her arm out to Jane, who looped her own through it obligingly. They walked as though they were peers, two young ladies taking a stroll down a busy street. Neither one of them nearing sixty, neither one of them leaning inconspicuously on the other. 

"Did you find us a fine suite, Jane?" asked Phryne. 

She'd have liked to book the presidential suite at the Waldorf, let her travel in the manner to which she'd long been accustomed. What she could afford was a ladies' boarding house, of the sort that boasted the kind of wallpaper and morality that would have pleased the late Aunt Prudence. Circumstances called for a compromise, and that was a skill that Jane had well mastered in recent years. 

"Do you remember Mr. Butler's old friend?" asked Jane. "Mr. Butler used to get a letter from him twice a month." 

"Is he the one who sent that dreadful saltwater taffy?" asked Phryne. 

Jane laughed. "I think so." 

"What a horrid little man," said Phryne, "though I suppose his taste in friends is rather better than in sweets." 

"Don't!" said Jane, still laughing. "He's offered, quite generously, to host us at his home for our entire time in New York. Look, he sent us this letter. See?" 

Miss Fisher let out a sound entirely unlike a harrumph, the sort of gracefully indignant noise that a fashionable lady in her prime years might utter. 

"Let's go, then," she said after a moment. "Surely one of these fine young men would be delighted to hail a cab for two pretty girls." 

 


End file.
